Happy Birthday Garrett

Today Garrett is 18 years old! Huzza Huzza! :) We love hanging out with you...we hope your day is the best!!

He's the best babysitter (even though I caught a frown in this picture)

...Aw! So sweet!...

Heather's Birthday

Heather’s birthday was on Thursday…I know, it’s a little late! Happy birthday, little sis!! We love you!

You bring out the best in each other! :)

...Always so crafty...

Savanna loves you so much (remember this picture?..."The Forbidden Picture.")

Taking Time to Smell the Roses

I picked these roses and peonies at my in-law's house. I love how they smell!

We're sorry our blog hasn't been updated...our only excuse is that we've stopped to smell the roses!

What a weekend!

I'm still getting caught up on some blog posts, but there have been a series of events that takes precidence over all other blog posts that I have to document, otherwise I might not believe it myself!

Let's start with Friday night at 5:59 pm: I had just finished feeding Savanna when I got a call from a co-worker. "Can you see if my keys are in your car?" she asked. (We had run a few errand together during the day.) Sure enough, they were there! I strapped Savanna in the car and off we went...just a little hiccup, no big deal.

At 6:10 JI calls to tell me he's on his way home from work and he'll see me soon...still, nothing out of the ordinary.

At 6:19 pm I recieve a text that my sister is going in for a C-section and a new baby cousin will arrive before 7:30...I needed to call everyone I knew to tell them the exciting news, starting with my husband.

At 6:23 I call JI and before I can tell him the good news, he informs me that he has a flat tire! These things happen every once in a while...just a little delay to the weekend fun.

At 7:37 Sophia Liliana arrived! Yahoo for a new baby girl in the family!

At 7:46 I receive another text from my long-time friend that her baby girl made her debut earlier that night...Kate Mackenzie! What an exciting day!

Saturday we visited my sister and friend in the hospital (coincidentally, the same one!), cuddled with newborn babies and loved every second of it, visited and shopped with family in preparation for Easter weekend and finished the night with a houseful of family and yummy pie.

Cute little Sophia and her favorite aunt :)

Little Kate Cutler, so tiny and precious!

Now, I must admit, I usually am in bed no later than 10:30, but Saturday night was different. At 10:54 pm, I was making a birthday cake for my sister-in-law and just chilling with my hubs when we heard a strange noise outside our kitchen window. BAM! We both looked at each other and ran outside to see what had happened. A tire had come off a passing car and hit the rear end of our car, parked in the driveway. The driver was fine, just shaken up from the strange occurence with her car. We waiting for the police to come and finally we were able to get back into our cozy warm house and finish with our projects we had started. After experiencing a bit of an adrenaline rush, we were both wide awake. I continued with my cake-making and JI put in a movie and cleaned up the house while watching a scene or two.

You can see the marks of the tire that hit our sad car!

The ghetto car that caused the commotion

At 12:30 am we heard Savanna coughing and went into her room to check on her, when we found she had thrown up all over her crib. We quickly stripped her bed and threw everything in the wash. Our cute little one just wanted to be held and protected from the scary germ bugs...her protector was her daddy. Every few minutes she would look up at him and wait for him to look at her. Once he'd look her in the eyes, she would fall back to sleep...only to look up at him a minute later. It was the most precious thing ever, it broke my heart!

Savanna and her body guard for the night

We finally got to bed somewhere around 3:00 am...everything's kind of fuzzy at that point. We slept for a few hours, but we were on pins and needles all night long checking on Savanna making sure she was doing okay.

Sunday we were able to relax a little bit and watch General Conference and enjoy the talks and music. I also finished up the cake for my sister-in-law. She has a major shoe fetish, to say the least...so what better to make her than a shoe birthday cake!

The shoe box is a white cake with chocolate frosting and the shoe is made out of gum paste.

I used a pie server as a mold for the shoe form. The pie server I found also came with a magnetic heel...it worked perfectly! (Thanks Sandy for the idea!)

When all was said and done the cake was yummy...and the weekend was our most eventful yet (knock on wood!)

We're looking forward to Easter weekend, hoping that it is a little more relaxing and a lot less eventful as this past weekend.

Growing up

Savanna has adapted well to the house change and is loving the big space to discover her limits (and her mom's). She now can get from point A to point B in one of three ways:

1) rolling from tummy to back and over again

2) assuming "the crawl" pose and scooting her way to her destination (she's not quite to the "one knee in front of the other" concept...but she's getting there fast)

3) grunting and lifting her arms until Mommy or Daddy pick her up

She is growing up so fast! It seems like every few days she's mastered a new skill. Her latest is saying "ma ma." Well, she actually says "ma ma ma ma ma ma...", but I like to think she's saying "mama."

She has two cute teeth, can sit up all by herself, has a favorite toy (Ella the Elephant aka "Ella-Friend), chews on anything she can get her hands on, sleeps 10-11 hours at night, eats baby food like a champ and has a weird fetish with the cable remote control (seriously, it's only that one remote).

What's a post without a few great pictures to wrap it up? :)

Playing with Puppy

Sleeping so soundly

This girl LOVES strawberries!

Savanna's "Ella-Friend"

6 months and going strong!

Turning over a New Leaf

It has been a long while since we have been in the blogging world. February sped by faster than we could click "New Post" and before we knew it we were in a moving marathon. Yes, it's true...we've moved! Out of our basement apartment on February 28th (of course we were only able to move out the LAST day of the month) and having family dinner in our new place on March 1st (there's nothing like a deadline to spice up a move). We loved our cozy apartment and friendly neighbors and ward, but with the addition of a baby our quaint quarters took on a claustrophobic feel. Savanna was starting to want to move and discover...and there wasn't much room to do that. JI and I felt the need to move on to better (and preferrably, bigger) things, so we watched for opportunities...and opportunities came! Thanks to the help and thoughtfulness of family and friends we were able to move into a wonderful house. We're still renting, but we couldn't ask for anything more right now! It's amazing to us the small and simple things that we take for granted. For example, since July 2007 we have affectionately called our dishwasher and disposal..."JI." :) We now call them "Whirlpool" and "In-Sinkerator." We have a kitchen that we can both stand in at the same time and we finally have space to have our bedroom look like a...well, bedroom. In addition to the grand additions, we are above all grateful for the blessing of living within 15 minutes of family...most especially, grandparents! We have a wonderful life and we are excited for the many adventures to come!

Got Milk?

Savanna sure finds the perfect moments to share with everyone. :) A picture attempt of her hot and sweaty hair-do turned into this the moment the flash went off. Her little half-smile only makes her look even more guilty of doing it on purpose. Absolutely hilarious!